Speaker Abstract and Biography
Michael Young - From ‘formal’ to ‘epistemic’ access
I first came across the concept of ‘epistemic access’ in the work of the late Wally
Morrow(Bounds of Democracy HSRC 2008), the South African philosopher of
education. Access to education remains a uniquely poignant issue in South Africa since
the abolition of apartheid and the first democratic elections. There are enormous pressures
which, more than anyone, Wally Morrow engaged with, to ‘open access’ to the
historically excluded majority, on almost any terms.
The distinction between ‘formal’ and ‘epistemic’ access raises two related questions that
I want to explore in this seminar- ‘access to what?’ and ‘what might be meant by
‘access’?’. However the distinction is not straightforward and in trying to clarify the the
issues and their implications I have found it necessary to take a step further and
distinguish between ‘epistemic’ and ‘epistemological’ as ways of describing access. This
will lead us from the specific policy and political issues which are only more extreme, not
different in South Africa, into wider debates about knowledge and the curriculum.
Michael Young (Emeritus Professor of Education, Institute of Education, University of
London).
I began my educational career as a secondary school science teacher, studying
for a second undergraduate degree in sociology part time. After a year
completing an MA at the University of Essex, I was appointed Lecturer in
Sociology of Education at the Institute of Education. I became increasingly
interested in post school education and 1990 was involved with Ken Spours and
others in writing A British Baccalaureate for the IPPR. Since then I have been
teaching on Masters programmes on what is now the Department of Lifelong and
Comparative Education. I have been fortunate to have had opportunities to visit many
other countries across the world to speak at conferences. My most recent projects
have been a five continent study of National Qualification Frameworks for the
International Labour Organisation, and a role mentoring young academics researching
professional curricula at the University of Cape Town.
There are two strands to my current research. One is concerned with knowledge and
the school curriculum. In collaboration with two Head Teachers and a teacher
educator, we have written a book, Knowledge and the Future School aimed more
at head teachers than academics(Bloomsbury 2014). The other strand of my work is
concerned with professions and professional knowledge and the challenges they face,
and will take life as another book with my South African colleague, Johan Muller,
Knowledge, Expertise and the Professions(Routledge 2014). There have been two
common strands in my work- the un-realised potential of sociology as a way of
understanding education and the central importance of knowledge.
Main books
(1971)Knowledge and Control- Collier Macmillan
(1998)The Curriculum of the Future- Routledge
(2008) Bringing knowledge back in(Routledge)